Desperate situations require measures that would never have been considered under let’s say “normal” conditions. This is the case that deals with the autumn soap opera and about which we will have a lot to talk about in 2023: the acquisition of Activision Blizzard Kind.
Putting the case in context. Microsoft has had to give in and give in as competitors in the video game market increased the level of complaints and with this forced regulators from half the world to file lawsuits to stop the purchase. The most important is that of the all-powerful American FTC, which, like the rest, fears that the largest purchase operation in the history of video games will concentrate too much power in the hands of Microsoft and that Microsoft will make some franchises exclusive, with Call of Duty as the center of all the debates although it would not be the only one.
Activision Blizzard: Microsoft concessions
Microsoft has put its main executives in charge of the operation, headed by its own president, Brad Smith, and the head of Xbox, Phil Spencer. To begin with, they have unilaterally expanded the call of duty license agreement for three years and have promised to keep the franchise on Steam. They have also proposed a long-term contract (10 years) to Nintendo and Sony for the use of it. If Nintendo responded in the affirmative, Sony has not responded to a proposal that it initially considered “inadequate.”
Microsoft explained that it could not sign an agreement that would last “forever”, but that it was willing to achieve “a long-term commitment that Sony and regulators are comfortable with”, insisting that they need to work on the platforms of the competition to recover the investment. The latest concession was the right to sell the Call of Duty franchise on the PlayStation Plus service.
But Sony continues to say no and since it is the key to the approval of this operation, Microsoft has opted for an unthinkable measure: half pay the almost 70,000 million dollars that it will cost. We don’t know how the proposal will have gone down in the middle of Christmas at the Tokyo headquarters, but we have never known anything like this. It would be a blast…
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